Coming out of lockdown (again)

Sunday 9th May 2021…..

It has been sometime since my last blog post, why I hear you ask, well Corona Virus is the answer to that question. Most of the photography that I would normally do has been cancelled since the beginning of the pandemic. It has been a tough time for most of humanity and to be honest I haven’t really suffered, but my creativity has suffered. I have been so un-inspired for so long now I am not sure how to break to cycle. Back when we had the first lockdown last year I started a daily photo challenge based on FB where I would set a challenge and then go live each evening and review the submitted images. The idea was to inspire people to go and take pictures and to encourage me to take pictures…..it kind of worked to start with but my personal inspiration waned quickly. I reduced the challenges to every other day and then eventually to once a week, then in March this year I decided to take a break and stop the weekly challenges and reviews. We had some issues within the family and I just felt I needed to take a break and have some time for myself. It has now been several weeks since my last live broadcast and photo review and I’m not sure when I might start again.

Having said all of that, the break has been good as it has given me time to concentrate on the other things including my other business interests. I am beginning to find new inspiration for my photography and I have had the chance to photograph my friends model daughter a couple of times. We are now looking at starting to run some workshops again, all of this being possible because of the easing of restrictions.

I am still missing travel, both locally and foreign but we have a trip to London planned soon and another trip to Derbyshire so I am hoping that the change of scenery will help to re-ignite my love of picture making. I’m sure many of you have felt the same as I do, at times it has felt stifling. I like to live life to full without restraints on where and when I can do things, G and I are used to doing things at the drop of a hat. It was not unusual for us to just go and do stuff, no plans, no “Oh should we”……no lets just go and do it !!

I look forward to a future where not everything is how it was but a new future with new possibilities and new adventures…….

To be continued :)

February.......A Month of Fashion

Some of you might know I shoot quite a bit of fashion and as we ease into the month of February the fashion shows begin. This time last year I was lucky enough to go to New York Fashion week, now this sounds very exciting and glamorous but let me explain how it really wasn’t.

So the whole process of me getting the opportunity to go to New York started with my friends daughter being asked to model in a New York show. In turn my friend asked if I would like to go as their photographer, er let me think for one second…..hell YES ! So we were told I had a place and a press pass but before I could book flights etc we needed official confirmation. This was slow in coming….very slow and as the days passed I began to think that the New York dream was over before it had even started. Eventually I was told that although I was guaranteed as pass I would still have to apply officially online. Ok, I completed the online application form and then waited and waited some more. Finally with only two weeks before the show my passes arrived along with the realisation that it was going to be a whirlwind trip because of other work commitments. I booked our flights and hotel as quickly as I could, we planned to fly out on the Friday morning, the shows being on the Saturday, and then fly home Sunday afternoon, arriving back in the UK Monday morning.

And so it was a whirlwind trip, but still amazing !

Anyway back to the present, I am lucky enough to be able to spend this valentines weekend in London shooting fashion.. Don’t worry you romantics out there I have managed to book a fab restaurant with a view in London to spend Valentines evening with G. It is the least I can do for an amazing lady who follows me around the world, lugging bags of gear being my brilliant assistant.

I am shooting six shows, over two days, featuring 34 designers, numerous models and in excess of 15000 images…….

A couple of examples of my work from previous shows.

New York Fashion Week

A New Year......working smarter !

As we step into 2020 I wonder what the new year holds for me, more so this year because 2019 was crazy. It was a year filled with travel to destinations including New York and Milan, both of those trips were to shoot fashion shows. I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to take part in these events and to have meet so many amazing people along the way. I have spent many a long hour into the twilight editing and working on social media to promote my work. This year I plan to work smarter as opposed to working harder, so I begun with a proper clear up in my office, yes I can now see the surface of my desk. I am determined to keep on top of the constant flow of emails, phone calls and client meetings. This I will back up with a promise to myself to follow up on client leads and general business promotion…….

This all sounds excellent but how will I manage to fit all of this into my busy life which already includes running two businesses, being a husband, a father, a grand father and fitting in regular travel (my favourite thing !)

The simple answer is I’m not sure but I think that being more organised will help, along with focusing on the important tasks and ignoring the things that tend to distract us like browsing social media to see what other people are doing.

Reading this now at 5am ( I can’t sleep so I decided to get up and do something useful ) it all sounds brilliant but how long will I maintain the drive to work smarter ?

Coffee & Cameras 31st August 2019

Coffee & Cameras is a group started by me to encourage people who have an interest in photography to meet up, drink some coffee, talk about cameras and photography. We normally meet around once a month but this is not set in stone, in fact the whole idea is that there is no structure to the group. I will pick a date when I am available and then post the event on Facebook. The events are open to anyone and completely free, you do not need to book a place and there are no tickets, just turn up if you want to join us. Sometimes there might only be a couple of people but at this event there was 11 of us.

Based in Norwich, Norfolk UK , often we will meet at The Forum which is located in the centre of the city with plenty of parking, it’s a good place to start. I will usually have some idea where we might go but I am open to suggestions, there are no real plans and we will go with the flow.

This week I started with a bit of show and tell……

So in my bag I had a Rollei 35, a Fujifilm X-E2 and a Lomography Fisheye camera.

The Rollei 35 is one of the smallest 35mm, full frame, rangefinder cameras in the world. The original Rollei 35 was introduced at Photokina in 1966.

The Fujifilm X-E2 is a mirrorless CSC camera, I like the simple design of this camera. I bought it second hand and it currently has the 27mm pancake lens fitted. This makes a really nice compact outfit which you can slip into a pocket but produces great images.

Finally the Lomography Fisheye is a plastic toy camera which I bought from eBay for £5……I loaded a roll of Fujifilm Superia X-Tra 400 which cost more than the camera !

This is an image from the Lomo….

Lomography Fisheye camera loaded with Fuji 400 film